Awards
The NEA Foundation Awards for Teaching Excellence
Photo: (Left to right) Barbara Keshishian, NJEA President; Gary Phoebus, NEA Member Benefits President & CEO; Elizabeth Oliver-Farrow, The NEA Foundation Board Chair; Danielle Kovach, awardee; Harriet Sanford, The NEA Foundation President & CEO; John Stocks, NEA Executive Director; Dennis Van Roekel, NEA President
Visit our photo gallery to find photos from the gala for purchase.
Our Awards for Teaching Excellence recognize, reward, and promote excellence in teaching and advocacy for the profession. They also honor public education and the dedicated members of the National Education Association.
On Friday, February 10, 2012, at the NEA Foundation’s Salute to Excellence in Education Gala, Danielle Kovach, a special education teacher at Tulsa Trail Elementary School in Hopatcong, NJ, received one of public education’s top honors: The NEA Member Benefits Award for Teaching Excellence and $25,000. That night, the NEA Foundation presented more than 40 awards to exceptional educators and dedicated supporters of public education during its Salute to Excellence in Education Gala.
Watch Kovach's acceptance speech.
The top five educators, who received the Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence, were honored with videos profiling their work that were made by their students with digital arts training from Pearson Foundation.
The NEA Foundation and the NEA jointly present the awards with support from the Horace Mann Educators Corporation, NEA Member Benefits, and Pearson Foundation. This year, with generous support from California Casualty, we honored 35 educators as the 2012 recipients of the California Casualty Awards for Teaching Excellence.
See who these excellent educators are, where they are from, and what they teach.
The NEA Foundation Award for Philanthropy in Public Education
We present this award to foundations and corporations of stature in recognition of their significant and demonstrated financial commitment to improving public education or supporting public schools, students, and educators.
The NEA Foundation presented the 2012 award to the Ford Foundation. Now celebrating its 75th anniversary, the Ford Foundation is an independent, global organization with a legacy of commitment to innovative leaders on the frontlines of social change.
Photo: Jeannie Oakes, Director of the Educational Opportunity and Scholarship Programs, accepts the award on behalf of the Ford Foundation
The Security Benefit Corporation Award for Outstanding Service to Public Education
This award recognizes individuals and organizations for their lifelong commitment to advancing public education and is typically presented to those who work outside the field. Awardees have included former President Bill Clinton, Title IX advocate Billie Jean King, and Sesame Workshop.
The NEA Foundation presented Will Allen, CEO of Growing Power Inc, with the 2012 Security Benefit Corporation Award for Outstanding Service in Public Education. Widely considered one of the leading authorities in the expanding field of urban agriculture, Allen teaches inner-city youth about farming, business management and marketing, by taking them through the entire process, from planting seeds to selling produce at farmers’ markets. To date, he has developed partnerships with more than 10 Milwaukee Public School (MPS) schools to put into action school-based food projects that include curriculum-based programs complying to Wisconsin State Standards. Will Allen’s organization, Growing Power, has also supplied 40,000 Milwaukee Public School children in 75 elementary schools with the food it grows.
Photo: Will Allen, Growing Power, Inc., CEO